Category Archives: Intentional Communities

Over the past several days, in the midst of the protests related to the killing of George Floyd and death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto, many people have asked me (and other Black people) this question: what does the government do now? What are the solutions to racism in Canada, Celina?

As much as it frustrates me, and likely other members of the Black community, to be recipients of racism and still be asked to come up with solutions, I will acquiesce to this request, and provide some insights for government colleagues.

First, acknowledge and understand that racism exists. And not just the capital R racism that is consuming all the oxygen in our media, but the daily death by a thousand cuts microaggressions that Black, Indigenous and people of colour face every day. This is the truth. And there is no reconciliation without truth.

Next, provide adequate, intentional and sustained funding to community programs and organizations that empower and uplift communities. Dont make announcements about combatting guns and gangs in the Jane and Finch area of Toronto while handing over money to law enforcement for the further over-surveillance of an already stigmatized community.

While the area has its fair share of problems, the community has also had a tremendous amount of success notably highlighted in the film Mr. Jane and Finch (about community advocate Winston LaRose), which recently won a 2020 Canadian Screen Award for best social/political documentary program.

There are organizations like Zero Gun Violence run by Louis March, Trust 15 run by Marcia Brown, and Generation Chosen run by Dwyane Brown and Joseph Smith. Each of these organizations has been working tirelessly to help uplift and empower our youth. Itah Sadu, owner of A Different Book List bookstore, has been raising funds for a cultural centre for the community. All of these individuals are tired of jumping through hoops to get funding. They have demonstrated their ability to effect change and have sustained their businesses with proven results. Our governments could find ways to help them scale up and grow (in the same way they are helping Canadian commercial entities and projects to scale up). This should extend to the governments procurement processes, as Black-owned businesses are often left out of the conversation, off the list and fail to receive invitations to trade missions.

Additionally, if governments are going to make announcements about investments in Black communities, they should do the math first. Budget 2018 dedicated $19 million to addressing challenges faced by Black Canadians. Such efforts include $10 million over five years to provide more culturally focused mental health programs to the Black Canadian community and $9 million over five years to enhance community supports for Black youth. Additionally, $23 million was allocated to increase multiculturalism funding. Part of the funds were to be used to conduct cross-country consultations on a new anti-racism approach, which will find new ways to collaborate and combat discrimination.

But when you do the math on these numbers, they dont make sense, and they certainly do not speak to Black lives mattering. Lets use the example of $10 million over five years for mental health programs (or $2 million per year). There are 1.2 million Black people in Canada. For ease of this analysis, lets make this number an even million. If we use the current statistics of mental health challenges impacting one out of five people, we can hypothesize that approximately 200,000 Black Canadians are impacted by mental health issues. This budget is essentially allotting $10 per year per person affected by mental health ($2,000,000 divided by 200,000). How TF is that supposed to do anything? How is that going to have impact? Was this investment intentional or some sort of window dressing? Have we been took? Hoodwinked? Bamboozled? Led astray? Run amok?

However, doing the math is only useful if you are putting forward good policy. And please do not let how well a particular issue will poll get in the way of good policy. If you are considering how good policy will impact your ability to get re-elected, find a new line of work, because you do not deserve to represent the people who need you the most.

So, here are some policy changes that can be made. They are suggestions, and not in any particular order of priority. They all should have been done a long time ago. (Most are listed on my Top 43 things to do in the 43rd Parliament tweet thread dated December 4, 2019).

Lets start with the expungements of criminal records for those folks, predominantly Black and Indigenous, who have been charged with marijuana possession. The government has introduced pardons; however, the over-surveillance of Black and Indigenous communities, which is a violation of our human rights, has led to a disproportionate over-representation of these groups in the prison system. It is time to right the wrong. And while you are at it, get rid of mandatory minimums, too.

Immigration patterns for the approvals of visas from Black and Brown countries into Canada is abysmal. This was a topic of countless conversations during the 42nd Parliament; however, very little was done to improve the situation. The government should investigate immigration practices that discriminate against people from these countries and review visa lifts. In the interim, they should increase the number of mobile biometric units, which track information necessary for a visa application, available in Caribbean and African countries.

Domestically, if representation matters, increase the number of Black people in Cabinet and Black people in Governor in Council appointments. Name an experienced Black person to head the new Anti-Racism Secretariat within the department of Canadian Heritage and increase the number of Black political staffers in prominent positions. Honour the spirit of my private members Bill C-468, and remove the barriers that exist for Black federal employees to be promoted within the federal system, especially in deputy minister and assistant deputy minister positions.

Lastly, as a former entrepreneur in the area of research, I was heartened that budget 2018 dedicated $6.7 million to create a new Centre for Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Statistics at Statistics Canada. This centre will work to improve our understanding of the social, economic, financial, and environmental issues facing groups, including Black Canadians. This new information will help organizations and leaders better understand the barriers faced by the community and will inform future evidence-based policy. So, start collecting and analyzing race-based data, especially around COVID-19, to properly use our limited resources strategically.

Now, I know what you are going to say. You were there, Celina. If this was a problem with government policy and spending, why didnt you do something about it instead of complaining now? And with this statement, you would be partially correct. I was there during the time the announcements were made in 2018 around anti-racism program and funding. But I was not a part of the conversations or decisions involved in the outcome. In fact, meeting attendees were told not to tell anyone about the meetings logistics or discussions. They were especially kept secret from me. Additionally, after the announcement was made and I made my frustrations known, I was told that I needed to get on board because it looked bad that I was bad mouthing the government and the related stakeholder group that had been consulted.

Herein lies what is the biggest impediment to collective progress. Exclusion. The exclusion of voices of dissent and unusual suspects around the table. The ones who will speak truth to power, call out your bullshit and hold you accountable. The exclusion of ideas that are considered too extreme because you are too lazy to see the other side of the coin.

Talking about defunding police is apparently an absolute non-starter, though it has been skillfully addressed by women like Sandy Hudson and Robyn Maynard for quite some time. Their core idea is that if you reduce funding for policing, you can increase funding that uplifts communities and you can invest in mental health supports. Are those also non-starters? I hope not.

Lastly, and most hurtful, the deliberate and intentional exclusion of marginalized groups, and in particular, Black female voices from conversations. Everyone thinks they want the Black woman in the room to fill the diversity quota (Black person check; female check), but do they really want her opinion? Do they really want her to tell the truth? Or, dare I say, tell them where they are wrong?

If diversity is truly going to be our strength and #BlackLivesMatter is going to be a reality beyond the hashtag, our governments need to be serious and intentional about policy that is inclusive and funding that is sustainable. We are beyond the point of community consultations and rhetoric. It is time for accountability and action. And both need to start now.

Photo:Thousands of people gather for a peaceful demonstration in support of George Floyd and Regis Korchinski-Paquet and protest against racism, injustice and police brutality, in Vancouver, on May 31, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

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If Black lives matter, it's time for true policy action and accountability - Policy Options

Years ago, when I worked as a patrol officer in a college town, a university police officer who was a close friend showed me some cool things on campus on a quiet midnight shift. One of those things was a soundproof booth in the speech and hearing program area. We took turns going into the little booth and screaming our heads off to see if the other could hear anything. The experience caused a little bit of panic and claustrophobia reminiscent of a nightmare where youre trying to say something or warn somebody, and they cant hear you.

Ive felt that way since the George Floyd video. Suddenly, its not just the radical cop haters accusing all police officers of systemic and violent racism. The narrative is so often repeated and so strident that people of goodwill are being swept up in the tide.

Many want to know what they can do besides Facebook keyboard strokes. Here are some things you might suggest.

This means more than saying there are more good cops than bad. It means supporting your local law enforcement agencies. When they get it right, which is the majority of the time, send a note of thanks, a letter to the editor, or a donation to a related cause (foster care, homelessness, victim assistance, domestic violence, etc.) in the name of the agency. Send a book for their break room (maybe even one of mine). When you hear of an officer hurt in a crash or arrest, send a card of concern. If you have a positive encounter with an officer, let others know.

This means resources. Whenever there is a cry for more training that necessarily means that the seats filled in the classroom are drawn by emptying patrol cars of those officers. Even free training costs in personnel and backfill. When 911 calls dont get answered in a timely way, the complaints about lack of training are forgotten. A 1,000-officer agency was criticized by a political candidate for not immediately agreeing to a 40-hour annual training on mental illness. Thats a thousand weeks of officers off the streets. And thats just for one topic. Other interest advocates want domestic violence training, animal encounter training and diversity training. Thats in addition to firearms and less-lethal weapons, arrest control and de-escalation, legal updatesand a plethora of recertifications. Communities have to support the budgets and staffing necessary to enable quality police training.

Statistics will seldom overcome preconceived notions with high emotional investment. In moments of cool reflection, there may be some light available from the numbers. Many studies cast serious doubt on assumptions of racial disparity in enforcement, use of deadly force against minority citizens and use of force in general. Arrests by race are roughly proportionate to representation by race in the general population. Although not a welcome argument, the amount of risk to minority citizens from other sources vastly outnumber the risk of unlawful violence by police when over half of all homicide victims are black. This may help to direct ones activism.

Many people point to the over-representation of minorities in the nations jails and prisons as evidence of race-based policing. Institutional racism does not begin and end with law enforcement. Where it is present may be traced from the future inmates pre-natal and subsequent healthcare, diet, housing, family structure, education, literacy and enrichment, employment, and a multitude of other social factors constantly debated, discovered and dissected.

Concerned citizens must act to ensure equity and opportunity in their communities. Isolation along racial lines, whether intentional or by default, does not foster intercultural communication. Individuals must ask if their monochrome associations contribute to a lack of understanding among racial and economic divides. Cooperation and community building without the patronizing presumption that one group must condescend to work with one another builds resilience and unity.

In our current culture, quality conversation is more a matter of what to avoid than what to affirmatively engage. Being the curator of your own voice and filtering through the voices of others is a supreme challenge. Americans used to get their news once a day from their newspapers or favorite television anchor. Now it is a constant bombardment from media whose objectivity is suspect, and social media whose voices are often angry, misinformed and narrow. Learning to discern is a skill yet to be widely developed in our culture. But we can encourage each other to hear the biblical mandate to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger.

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A letter to the American public: The steps you can take to support quality communities - Police News

I remember calling 9-1-1 as a child. I was maybe 10 years old when I saw a neighbor fall to the ground with chest pains. I leaped into action, picked up a phone, and called the number I had been taught to use in case of emergencies. Even at that early age, I knew dialing 9-1-1 could save a life.

I also remember the first time I called The Trevor Project. I was a scared college kid who wasnt out to many people. I was having a really hard day and was overwhelmed by the feeling of being alone and rejected. At first, I didnt know who to call. Thankfully, a good friend recommended I try a suicide prevention lifeline. I was grateful to learn there was somebody I could call who would accept me for who I was part of the LGBTQ community. In a moment of profound vulnerability, I needed to know that the person on the other end of that call was safe for me to talk to.

Over 100,000 LGBTQ youth contact The Trevor Project in a year, but we know that is only a fraction of the young people in need. In fact, our research suggests that 1.8 million LGBTQ youth between the ages of 13 and 24 in the U.S. seriously consider suicide each year and could benefit from our services. And even that is a fraction of the number of Americans of all ages who may someday find themselves in need of LGBTQ-inclusive crisis intervention services.

Thankfully, since 2004, Americans have been able to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 to talk to trained counselors. In recent years, it has become common for people to post the National Lifeline number on social media after reports of a high-profile suicide, in hope of providing a friend with the tool they need to save a life. The number even inspired a Grammy-nominated song.

But it would be so much better if every American knew what number to call as instinctively as they know 9-1-1 and best of all for LGBTQ people if they always knew when they dialed that number that they would get the kind of specialized services and intentional welcome that I counted on receiving from The Trevor Project.

The United States is experiencing a mental health emergency, as physical distancing contributes to social isolation and economic strains stretch our national psyche to a breaking point. Despite the extraordinary efforts made by the medical professionals saving lives each and every day, it has never been clearer that our national mental health infrastructure requires reinforcement and innovation to meet the growing need. We need a 9-1-1 for mental health. We need 9-8-8.

Thats where the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act comes in. First, the Act designates a simple three-digit number, 9-8-8, to eventually replace the current ten-digit number, 1-800-273-8255. Its a simple change, but one with the potential to save millions of lives by making it easier to access life-saving services in a moment of crisis.

Second, the Act recognizes the need for these services to be specialized to save the most lives possible. The National Suicide Hotline Designation Act directly empowers the skilled and dedicated staff at the National Lifeline to take into account the distinct needs of those communities shown by scientific research to be at higher risk of suicide, including LGBTQ youth.

This legislation is commonsense and that is why it is succeeding. At a time of deep political polarization, when no other piece of LGBTQ-inclusive legislation has moved in the Senate, the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act was passed by the Senate unanimously. Americans can be glad to know that, at least on the issue of suicide prevention, bipartisanship is still possible. Sens. Cory GardnerCory Scott GardnerWe need a '9-1-1' for mental health we need '9-8-8' Overnight Energy: US Park Police say 'tear gas' statements were 'mistake' | Trump to reopen area off New England coast for fishing | Vulnerable Republicans embrace green issues The Hill's Campaign Report: Trump juggles three crises ahead of November election MORE (R-Colo.) and Tammy BaldwinTammy Suzanne BaldwinWe need a '9-1-1' for mental health we need '9-8-8' Democrats introduce bill to rein in Trump's power under Insurrection Act 21 senators urge Pentagon against military use to curb nationwide protests MORE (D-Wis.) deserve our thanks for their leadership to find solutions in these difficult times.

To be clear, there will be a lengthy implementation process before people in crisis will be able to dial 9-8-8. Setting up helplines like this takes time and training. But at The Trevor Project, we are strongly encouraged by the progress weve made so far, not just in the Senate, but from the many conversations weve had with leaders at the Federal Communications Commission and Veterans Crisis Line.

The House of Representatives has technically passed this legislation as part of the latest COVID-19 relief bill, the HEROES Act. But as it is unclear that that version of the bill will pass in the Senate, we need the House to bring this bill directly to the floor for a vote. In the midst of one national emergency, we must take action to de-escalate another and well save lives doing it.

Sam Brinton is Trevor Projects vice president of Advocacy and Government Affairs.

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We need a '9-1-1' for mental health we need '9-8-8' | TheHill - The Hill

N

ative Women Lead states:

To our Relatives:

Native Women Lead (NWL) stands in solidarity with our Black relatives. The sadness and pain of the unjust killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery and the countless others before, has become too common for too long. Native Women Lead vehemently condemns racialized violence that terrorizes Black, Brown, Immigrant, Indigenous and Communities of Color everywhere.

NWLs foundation is rooted in our BEWE values - we are the Backbones of our community, Emerging as leaders, Weaving our ideas and resources and Empowering one another for change.

Justice is a shared responsibility and if we truly stand in our values then we must stand for our Black Relatives. Now is the time to center the Black community by holding space and activating our support for #BlackLivesMatter as anti-racist relatives and allies. It will not be business as usual, NWL will pause its online webinar retreat series and instead use the time on Thursday, June 4, 2020 at 11:30 am (MST) to call-in our Native womxn sister entrepreneurs to hold space and support our Black relatives by asking ourselves to reflect on how we can do better from where we are with what we have.

We must once again strengthen our Backbones and call out the systemic racism that has benefited for over 500 years off of the backs of Black and Native people. We believe if we act in solidarity mobilizing our communities we will move closer to Liberation for all.

We must Empower by calling to action ways we can all do the work together:

As non-Black people of color we must not remain silent when others in our community make anti-black comments, our complacency is part of the problem;

We will continue to acknowledge our Black-Indigenous/Afro-Indigenous relatives as kin, understanding anti-blackness has lived in our communities too;

Check in with our Black relatives, they are in pain. Doing so to hold space and not centering ourselves;

As businesses and entrepreneurs we know the power of intentional buying, use your money to buy and/or donate to a Black business and organizations. Put your money to work;

Use your network, promote amazing Black owned businesses, post about them on social media, share them with your friends.

To Emerge as leaders, we must do it by holding ourselves accountable. NWL does not have all the answers but we can use our platform and our resources to be a part of the solution. NWL will be convening Healing In Solidarity for #BlackLivesMatter conversation in place of our retreat this Thursday, June 4, 2020 at 11:30 am *MST. Register here. (Our previously planned retreat is postponed.)

We are Weaving our resources together and will be donating a $1,000 to #SayHerName and invite you to do the same here: https://aapf.org/supportshn #SayHerName is a movement that calls attention to police violence against Black women, girls and femmes, and demands that their stories be integrated into calls for justice, policy responses to police violence, and media representations of police brutality.

Finally, we are committed to doing this work in public and with the community. As a result we have updated our Community Working Agreement to be explicitly anti-racist. These agreements were always meant to be a living pledge for our work and approach:

Our organization is committed to the understanding of the inherent value of the women in our community. We believe we can learn from each other and it is this exchange which is critical to our movement.

Celebrate mistakes. Our work to revolutionize systems requires a dedication to experimentation and fearlessness. We will make mistakes and will learn and grow from them.

We are committed to radical transparency understanding as an organization that will work to heal each other and our communities in the decisions we make. We are committed to learning together in public and will share our reasons for decisions with our stakeholders and relatives.

We believe in thinking critically about our work and its impact on our Earth Mother and our peoples.

We come to the table of Native Women Lead as equals. Dedicated to striving for excellence and holding one another accountable as we co-create.

As we deconstruct the western systems of entrepreneurialism, we strive toward greater inclusion of our relatives who are Black-Indigenous/Afro-Indigenous, LGBTQIA, veterans, possessing differing abilities and come from different backgrounds.

We believe that our work must be intentional and utilize anti-racist frameworks to ensure we keep moving forward with social and economic justice in mind for all.

In Solidarity,

Native Women Lead Co-Founders

To find out more, see link below:

https://www.nativewomenlead.org/

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Native Women Lead with Solidarity for Black Lives Matter - KSFR

Nearly half of black Americans have very little or no confidence that police officers in their community treat people with different skin colors the same, according to the latest PBS NewsHour-NPR-Marist poll. But overall, only 18 percent of Americans take that view an illustration in itself that people of different races are living different realities in the United States.

In the days since George Floyds death cracked open the country with demonstrations of people calling for the end of racism in policing, a third of all Americans 35 percent said they have a great deal of confidence that police officers in their communities treat black and white people equally, in this poll conducted June 2-3.

Community trust in law enforcement has eroded somewhat over the past few years, as police-involved killings of black people have come to national attention, prompting pain and outrage. In December 2014, months after the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, a larger number 41 percent of Americans had a high degree of confidence in police.

Chart by Megan McGrew/PBS NewsHour

Black communities are often over-policed and over-profiled, which can even lead to fatality, as recent cases have shown us, said Dr. Michael Lindsey, who directs the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at New York University and has studied the effects of racism on mental health in black youth. Will an interaction with the police result in an outcome characterized by physical harm or unequal treatment by the court system? That is a real concern for black Americans.

To Lindsey, the views expressed in this nationally representative poll of 1,062 U.S. adults correspond with a history of negative interactions and experiences between the police and blacks.

A 2019 study showed that black men and boys face much higher risk of being killed by police in their lifetimes 96 deaths out of 100,000 are at the hands of police than do white men and boys, whose likelihood of death by cop is 39 out of 100,000.

While this poll asked specifically about perceptions about policing of black and white people, reports of police violence in brown communities have also gained greater awareness in recent years.

Floyds death and some of his last words, I cant breathe the same words spoken by Eric Garner, another black man whose death after being restrained by police was caught on video ignited protests last week that have spread to dozens of cities across the country and show no signs of stopping. Some protests have exploded into intentional acts of property damage and ransacking of stores, and been marked by sometimes debilitating or deadly use of force by police.

I had seen police brutality already, in real life and on [the TV], protester Devin Hinnant told PBS NewsHours Yamiche Alcindor in Washington. But something about hearing Floyd say, I cant breathe, made Hinnant feel he needed to know why that officer thought it was permissible to keep his knee on that mans neck, three minutes after he died.

In the U.S., nearly two-thirds of Americans view the rallies and marches as mostly legitimate protests. That includes 87 percent of Democrats and 65 percent of independents. Just 28 percent of U.S. adults overall believe people are mostly acting unlawfully, including a higher proportion of Republicans 59 percent.

Chart by Megan McGrew/PBS NewsHour

The protests have exposed generational fault lines on issues of race,with nearly three-quarters of Gen Z and millennials those aged 18-39 believing the protests are legitimate, compared to 60 percent of Generation X, 55 percent of baby boomers, and 48 percent of those over the age of 74.

In many communities where people demonstrated, police used rubber bullets and tear gas to control crowds, in some cases severely injuring people. In one instance, photographer Linda Tirado lost sight in one eye after she said she was shot with a rubber bullet during a protest in Minneapolis. The citys police department disputed the claim.

READ MORE: Protests near White House grow, a day after police cleared people for Trump photo op

More than a third of Americans believe police have acted too aggressively during recent demonstrations, including half of African Americans, 43 percent of Latinos and 31 percent of white people. Another 38 percent said police have mostly responded appropriately, including 41 percent of white Americans, 39 percent of Latinos and 32 percent of African Americans. Only 18 percent think police werent acting aggressively enough, including 20 percent of white respondents, 13 percent of Latinos, and 6 percent of African Americans.

Sixty-seven percent of Americans think President Donald Trump has mostly increased tensions since Floyds death, while 18 percent believe he has mostly decreased tensions.

Chart by Megan McGrew/PBS NewsHour

On May 29, Trump called protesters thugs and suggested he would respond with military force to control the situation, drawing criticism for stoking tensions.

These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I wont let that happen, Trump tweeted. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. In an unprecedented move, Twitter hid the tweet on his timeline behind a warning that said it violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence.

READ MORE: Trumps tweet about rioters echoes 1960s Miami police chief

An overwhelming majority of African Americans 88 percent believe Trumps response to the protests has only increased tensions, as do 69 percent of Latinos and 63 percent of white Americans.

Broken down by party, 92 percent of Democrats, 73 percent of independents and 29 percent of Republicans believe Trump is ramping up tensions. Another 41 percent of Republicans believe Trump has reduced the unrest while a striking 30 percent say they dont know.

In a June 1 call, Trump chastised state governors for their responses to protesters, telling them most of you are weakand demanding a crackdown on violence.

In recent years, tragedies like Browns death in August 2014 have propelled the Black Lives Matter movement and spurred calls to reform policing. Lately, a number of killings of black Americans have seared the national conscience again and again. On Feb. 23, Ahmaud Arbery, 25, had jogged slightly more than 2 miles from his home when two white men, Gregory and Travis McMichael, shot and killed him in an incident caught on tape by a third white man, William Bryan. Arbery was black. Initially, investigators did not pursue criminal charges until Bryans video surfaced publicly. By June 4, the three men were facing felony murder charges.

On March 13, police officers shot and killed 26-year-old black woman Breonna Taylor during the execution of a warrant for her home in Louisville, Kentucky. Officers opened fire, killing Taylor, after her boyfriend reportedly fired a warning shot upon being surprised by police who he said didnt announce themselves.

Nine minutes is not a snap decision.

Tensions came to a crescendo on May 25 when Floyd, 46, died as onlookers pleaded with police officers who had him pinned to the ground, one officers knee on his neck, for nearly nine minutes. The last moments of Floyds life were captured in a video that quickly went viral.

Police leadership is well aware that they need to rebuild community trust, said John Hollywood, a policing researcher at the RAND Corporation who has worked closely with law enforcement departments and policing suppliers. But, in the years since Ferguson, he said, some cities have seen improvements, but we havent seen a lot of progress in outcomes consistently across the country.

Police department data shows there are occasional bad shoots, instances when officers exercise poor judgement and, Hollywood said, make bad snap decisions with potentially lethal consequences. But what happened to Floyd is hard for Hollywood to compute.

Nine minutes is not a snap decision, he said.

PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist conducted a survey June 2-3 that polled 1,062 U.S. adults with a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points and 958 registered voters with a margin of error of 4.0 percentage points. When poll results are not listed for a certain group, it does not mean interviews were not completed with those individuals. It simply means the sample size is too small to report.

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Two-thirds of black Americans dont trust the police to treat them equally. Most white Americans do. - PBS NewsHour

In the past two weeks, the realities that millions of Americans of color face every day realities that are consciously and unconsciously condoned by the majority have come into sharp focus in a way that, we hope, can no longer be ignored.

This barrage of incidents has come to light, not because they are novel or new, but because they have been videotaped for the world to see. The killing of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police. The killing of Ahmaud Arbery, for jogging while black. The weaponizing of white privilege in Central Park.

In addition, there is the magnifying effect that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on long-standing inequities in health and education.A disproportionate share of those who die of the virus are African-American and children of color are disproportionately left behind in the transition to remote learning.

The pandemic has also created a severe state budget crisis that is forcing deep and crippling cuts to exactly those education and health care services intended to address and reverse those long-standing inequities.

At this long-overdue moment of national self-reflection, we must finally identify and address the many pernicious forms of racism that hide in plain sight every day in America and in Colorado.

Sadly, many of those practices and structures afflict Colorados classrooms. Whether the result of conscious or unconscious decisions, and despite the intentional efforts of many, examples of white privilege and systemic racism abound in the field of education: The vast majority of white children have the benefit of being taught most of the time by people who have the same racial and cultural experience that they do. Children of color do not.

In fact, it is not rare for children of color to graduate from high school having had only a handful of diverse teachers. This is a tragedy and a lost opportunity, as research demonstrates that having a teacher of color makes a significant difference in academic and social outcomes for all students and especially for students of color.

READ:Colorado Sun opinion columnists.

White students are more likely to benefit from high expectations, experienced educators, and advanced coursework than their black and brown peers, too often establishing a negative academic spiral.

White students get the benefit of the doubt more often; black children are expelled and suspended at rates several times higher than white children for the same behavior.

White students are more likely to hear We shouldnt ruin his record because of one mistake, while a black child is more likely to hear He has to learn to follow the rules.

White children experience a curriculum that presents role models, historical figures and fictional protagonists who look like they do and not just during one month of the year.Their history is portrayed with breadth, nuance and depth, not as a one-dimensional, sanitized and inaccurate story of victimization.

White educators work in school structures and cultures created within a dominant white culture. Black educators have to navigate structures with unwritten rules and expectations, with implicit bias baked in.

And underlying it all, schools attended by mostly students of color are funded at lower levels on average than schools in which the majority of students are white.

All of this is no surprise. Schools reflect our society, as much as they shape it. Eradicating institutional racism in our education system wont be simple or easy.

It will require commitment from all of us as well as significantly more resources, in order to improve the diversity of our teaching force, make teaching a profession that can support a family (and offset the disproportionately high student debt burden experienced by black graduates), provide extensive and ongoing cultural competency and implicit bias training for employees and other stakeholders, eliminate racial bias from curriculum and teaching practices, and increase academic, social and emotional supports for students from marginalized communities.

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It will also require meaningful and ongoing engagement with parents, students and representatives from diverse communities in deciding how those resources will be used to most effectively improve the lives of diverse students. Such inclusive budgeting practices would implement one of the fundamental principles of dismantling racist systems: Nothing about us without us.

All of these steps must be taken if we are to successfully reform our educational system to create more equitable opportunities and outcomes. If we are serious, we need to be ready to invest. If, instead, we stand by as school funding is slashed, we can be certain that the greatest toll of those cuts will once again be felt by students of color.

This moment can be an inflection point for Colorado. We must not let the urgency for action dissipate with the next news cycle, nor let Colorados COVID-created budgetary crisis derail the potential for progress.

Will we look back on 2020 as the year that we finally came together as a people and a state to end systemic racism? Its up to us.Right now.

Lisa Weil is Executive Director and Lea Steed is the Director of Equity Matters for Great Education Colorado, a statewide organization that advocates for adequate, equitable and sustainable funding of public education.

The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom.Read our ethics policy for more on The Suns opinion policyand submit columns, suggested writers and more toopinion@coloradosun.com.

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Opinion: Time to make good on the promise of education as the great equalizer - The Colorado Sun

Letter to the Editor by Joe Kenner, President and CEO, Greyston

Ive spent the last week ruminating on the May 25 death of George Floyd. As the leader of a social enterprise founded on recognizing the value and potential of every human being, I cannot be silent. As a black business leader, husband, and a father of a son, I cannot be silent. I grieve with George Floyds family, try to manage my own feelings of anger, and question if there is a way forward for America.This is not a time to be anti-police, or devolve into violence and further confusion. However, it is certainly a time to be pro-humanity and appeal to our better angels. Since becoming president and CEO of Greyston, Ive been confronted with outsized external challenges, beginning with COVID-19 and, now, the repercussions of George Floyds death. With each obstacle, I believe more firmly that, together, we must double down on our efforts to extend and expand opportunities to those who need them most.Greystons Open Hiring employment model is needed more than ever. Our win-win approach for both employee and employer has generated millions in economic impact in Southwest Yonkers and provided hundreds of jobs to the hardest to employ. Meanwhile, recent and successful adopters of the Open Hiring model, like The Body Shop, have reduced turnover by over 60% and increased productivity by 13%. This is the future of work: being innovative with human capital management and intentional about creating a more inclusive economy.Dont think its coincidental that leaders of large, multinational corporations, like Jamie Dimon, Bob Swan, and Ajay Banga of JPMorgan Chase, Intel, and Master Card, respectively, now are discussing stakeholder capitalism and focusing on investing in the communities their busineses serve. If we continue to show how business can be part of solving some of societys greatest ills, we can be part of healing this country and igniting an economic revival. This is what Greyston is all about.I am committed to seeing Open Hiring replicated, and even more committed to expanding our workforce development and community wellness programming that trains, supports, and develops opportunities for our neighbors who want jobs and are ready to get to work. Our Greyston team will continue to do impactful work, and we will remind our current and future donors that its all the more critical to support our efforts to scale our mission and assist the millions of people facing barriers to economic success.These last days have represented a tragic period for our country but, every day, the Greyston family illustrates what a thriving and inclusive society can look like. Lets build upon it. Lets get to work.

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Greyston CEO: We Are Part of the Solution, and We Always Have Been - Yonkers Times

Editors note: The following interviews were conducted and edited by AAMCNews Managing Editor Gabrielle Redford, Senior Staff Writer Stacy Weiner, Staff Writer Patrick Boyle, and Staff Writer Bridget Balch.

The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery in recent weeks have exposed deep wounds inflicted by the nations long legacy of racism. They have also triggered protests across the country against police brutality and long-standing policies and attitudes that have marginalized Black and other communities of color.

The AAMC invited 13 leaders and learners in academic medicine to share their thoughts on the events of the past week, the complicity of medicine in perpetuating inequities, and the role of students, physicians, and academic medical institutions in helping to heal the nation. The conversations have been condensed for space.

M. Roy Wilson, MDPresident of Wayne State University; member of the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities; former chair of the AAMC Board of Directors

Here's an astonishing statistic. A Black man today has a 1 in 1,000 chance of being killed by law enforcement. Thats 10,000 out of 10 million. The reason I use 10 million is that's the population of Michigan. Michigan had a little over 5,000 deaths from COVID-19, and it has been one of the hardest hit states during the pandemic. But that's still only half the number of Black boys who will die if nothing is done to address this issue of police brutality against Black men.

To be honest, as a young man, I probably had a bit of a chip on my shoulder, and any Black man my age has had numerous encounters with law enforcement. So, the fact that I'm here now, I feel like I'm a survivor, because these encounters definitely could have gone in a different direction.

[At Wayne State], we just created a National De-escalation Training Center for law enforcement. When the Dallas Police Department, for example, did de-escalation training, they had an 18% decrease in excessive use of force in one year and an 80% decrease over seven years, so thats hugely positive.

I've been looking at these pictures of these protests, and in some cities, there are more White people protesting than Black. This hit a nerve with all kinds of people. They are out there saying they don't want this kind of justice anymore, they really want to see a change in this country. That gives me a lot of hope.

Selwyn Vickers, MDSenior vice president for medicine and dean of the University of Alabama School of Medicine

In Alabama, we uniquely face this moment, feeling that although there have been some areas of progress, there are also glaring and persistent inequities and perceptions of value. The most seminal document highlighting these inequities was Dr. Martin Luther Kings Letter from a Birmingham Jail because of its message that peaceful protest is essential to change and that the change must come from all elements of our society.

Having [this latest incidence of police brutality] occur in Minneapolis in 2020 magnifies that this is not a Southern problem, a Western problem, a Northern problem, or an Eastern problem. Its an American problem. The attitude that perpetuates the lethality that we see connected with people of color by those who are sworn to protect them is very much connected to the reality that our society values one race over another.

That is paramount for us to understand as we try to move our country to a sense of healing and honest reconciliation.

I think academic medicine needs to recommit to the idea that when every part of our society is operating at its highest capacity, this is good for everybody. It lifts the bucket and the boat for the majority and the minority. First, we have to be highly intentional. When we have problems that have been inherently created by racial bias, we try to solve them in a color-blind fashion. The fact is, this is a huge misnomer. The reason were in this position is because people have not been color blind. If were going to move forward, there has to be reaction and counteraction. We have to be comfortable and committed to being intentional.

Then we have to listen. We have to be willing, whether we are White or Black, to try to understand the full pain that people who are vulnerable are experiencing. As we do that, we have a better chance at understanding and overcoming our biases and prejudices.

Christle Nwora, MDResident at Johns Hopkins Medicine; member of the class of 2020 at McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas HealthScience Center at Houston; past chair of the AAMC Organization of Student Representatives

I don't speak for my school, but I would like medical students, and residents as well, to be taught that racism was central to the creation of this country and that it has long-lasting generational effects. Although we may not feel like we are responsible for the ills of the past, there are problems in the present that are our responsibility to address.

I shouldnt learn about asthma without learning about Black children who have higher rates of asthma due to where they live and that where they live is a result of redlining. This is all connected which can be overwhelming but it gives us space to think about the different ways that we can have an impact in our communities.

We need to think about whether students and faculty are able to speak up about racism. Do we create space for these kinds of conversations? We need to recognize that none of us knows all the answers, that we need to not have a fixed mindset when thinking about racism in medicine, that there's always more to learn about anti-racism.

Whats going on now is heartbreaking. It's frustrating. I feel this fatigue, this heaviness, that this just keeps happening. I remember Tamir Rice being shot [in Cleveland], I remember so many other instances, and each time this happens I think, Okay, this is the moment when people actually will take this seriously.

[I get hope] talking to first-year medical students at my school. I see their energy and their recognition that things cannot stay the way they've been and that medicine is capable of doing much more. So, as long as we have students like this who will continue to keep our feet to the fire, then I believe medicine can make progress.

Dowin Boatright, MDAssistant professor of emergency medicine at Yale School of Medicine

Ive been thinking about how we, as physicians, have allowed this to go on for so long and how weve managed to become so sophisticated in the way were able to treat an individual as a person, but weve been relatively ineffective in bringing about societal change, especially in terms of structural inequities.

I think there needs to be more of an emphasis among medical schools training and educating a cohort of future physicians who are change agents and do want to address social justice.

Every year, I feel like I see a new paper that documents the disparities in pay, disparities in promotion I recently published a piece that looked at the experience of discrimination among medical students, and over 20% of medical students of color, women, and sexual gender minorities all reported experiencing at least one instance of discrimination while in medical school.

As we begin addressing more the social determinants of health, Id like to see more medical schools make it a part of their mission, and correlated to that part of their mission, more emphasis in their educational curricula on how we can actually start to address these social injustices as physicians, so not only would we be experts in treating disease, but we can actually start treating illness in society overall.

Now, with COVID, many hospitals and medical schools are losing money, and my fear is that the budgets for these diversity initiatives are going to be the first things cut.

And I think the murder of George Floyd brings back into focus the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion and, hopefully, can be a reminder to leaders in academic medicine that these issues of bias and discrimination and so forth are not luxuries we can address at our leisure, but are necessities that we need to be looking at right now.

David Kountz, MD, MBAAssociate dean of diversity and equity at Hackensack-Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University; vice president of academic diversity and co-chief academic officer at Hackensack Meridian Health

Im worried aboutour African American residents and fellows making sure were reaching out to them, giving them an opportunity to talk about their feelings and concerns.There is a greater risk for African Americans to develop maladaptive behaviors to this kind of stress than other members of the population. What can we do to create an environment for African American residents to feel that theyre not alone, and thatit'sunderstandable to feel depressed, angry? They might need to take a little time away from patient care to reflect on current events.

Traditionally, medicine is a field where physicians in training were encouraged to be stoic and not necessarily share their feelings. We are looking to create more venues to support a culture which encourages this type of sharing and promote more conversations.

Many residents are angry.Others may feel angry but may feel that it is not appropriate to express it.My job, and others in leadership, is to listen and give them safe spaces to express their emotions.

Wayne Frederick, MD, MBASurgeon and president of Howard University

Many of our students were born right after 9/11 and theyve grown up in an America that has seen significant changes. Theyve seen a Black President. Theyve seen our country go to war. And theyve seen a war taking place in their local society because of police brutality and the color of their skin.

Right now, theyre experiencing a mixture of emotions, everything from anger to frustration to disappointment. Equally as important, were also hearing from students about hope and their willingness to be part of the solution. They want to get involved.

[At Howard University], we talk about disparities all the time. The pandemic has really been shining a light on those disparities in terms of the types of diseases that affect African Americans. I lived those disparities today. This morning, I operated on a man with esophageal cancer. All of the factors that made him more at risk for that disease were there the diet hes been exposed to and the environment hes been exposed to. And then this afternoon, we opened a COVID-19 testing site at the Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church in Southeast D.C. In D.C., 46% of the population is Black, but 77% of the COVID deaths so far have been in the Black community.

Without a doubt, there is a risk [of the virus spreading] with the protests and that many people. Im pleased to see people with masks but its not easy to social distance while youre protesting. Thats the reality. Having said that, people are weighing whats most important. They want to get their message out.

LaShyra Lash NolenRising second-year medical student and Student Council president at Harvard Medical School

One of the biggest challenges of this time as a medical student is that we are not on campus. Usually when something like this happens, we come together as a community and have a dinner and give each other a warm embrace. That lack of human connection is missing, since were all in quarantine.

We were already dealing with disparities exposed by COVID-19, and now we are also coping with the murder of George Floyd and so many others. I am still taking classes and it wasnt until recently that professors really started discussing whats happening in our society. Its easier to just focus on the medicine. Im glad were finally having the tough conversations, but it shouldnt take a week of protests across the country for our humanity to be recognized. Thats why these past few weeks have been really isolating and lonely for me as a Black woman.

Its so important to have Black faculty members. We need to have professors who can relate to our lived experiences. Until then, we must have anti-racism training in medical education. Then hopefully professors will become privy to the fact that these things are happening in our society and they can reach out to students and make sure they validate their experiences.

But Im hopeful. For the first time, were talking about racism. Before, its been unconscious bias. Its been diversity and inclusion. Weve really been tiptoeing around the real issue of structural racism. Im most hopeful that the AAMC and some of the other major health organizations have come out and said that police brutality is a national public health crisis. We can no longer pretend that this is not our lane. If we start to change the way we frame these issues, then maybe the next generation of healers will have the power to shift the narrative.

Naomi NkinsiRising third-year medical student at University of Washington School of Medicine

I feel like Ive been failed by my educators, my colleagues, the school administration. Were having a town hall meeting, where the onus is placed on Black people to speak about their experiences, to tell the administration what they want to have done when these issues have been brought up for years. It almost seems performative. You get a room of predominantly non-Black people, the Black people get to be emotional and upset, and everyone gets to pat themselves on the back and say, We hear you. It almost feels like we have to put out our trauma and have it validated.

Town halls are a good way to have a discussion, but if theyre not met with action then I dont see the purpose. Youve said all these things. You cried. People said they listened. But there are no next steps.

The people who are most affected our voices arent the ones at the table in those meetings where changes are made. To make medical institutions less racist toward Black people, there needs to be more Black people at the table to contribute to drafting policies.

Ive shared so many of my own experiences with racism, I feel like Ive kind of exhausted that capacity. The message we get is, Were impressed by your resilience, impressed by your grit. Instead of lauding us for our resilience and grit, why dont you make changes so we dont have to develop those skills more than other people just to survive?

Oluwaferanmi Okanlami, MD Assistant professor of family medicine and physical medicine & rehabilitation at the University of Michigan Medical School; director of adaptive sports at the Michigan Center for Human Athletic Medicine and Performance

Meaningful change requires a mutual understanding of what the problem is in the first place.

Well have these meetings. Well have these conversations. Every institution in the country every academic medical center in the country is having town halls and panels and discussions, which is great, but there are many people that are very tired of having the same conversation without seeing any meaningful action. And that action is going to require some accountability by every individual. Every single individual needs to see that this is something that impacts them.

I do think that, within academic medical systems, there will be those that are hesitant to want to take on a new social justice angle. Theyre not going to want to talk about police brutality or racism. Theyre going to say, These are big things. This is not my responsibility. I didnt go into medicine to be a social justice warrior; I just want to take care of people.

That is something that we can then address and say, If you want to take care of people, we must first acknowledge that certain people are not valued in the same way. We also dont see them in the same numbers in our ranks. If you look at academic medical systems, these individuals are not represented in adequate numbers. So why dont we make a better attempt at supporting them from early on in the pipeline? From elementary school, high school, college, medical school, residency create programs that actually have a longitudinal ability to support people. And in order to do so, we need to put our money where our mouth is.

We need to acknowledge that this is not new and connect it to every other underrepresented and marginalized group. For example, women are also not seen in adequate numbers in leadership in academic medicine and face their own barriers and mistreatment. That is also important, so I dont want us to just focus on Black people today and forget about women tomorrow. While we must absolutely call out the racism that exists and has existed, with a focus on the immediacy of addressing its impacts on Black Americans, this is also an opportunity to support all other marginalized groups. Im from Nigeria and have a funny first and last name. People get discriminated against because their hair looks funny, people think their food smells bad, or their accent sounds different these are things that are created because the system were in allows it this isnt about this one group alone. This is about the systems of power and privilege that allowed this to occur, and we will need to get to the people in positions of power and ask them, What are you going to do?

Carl Suddler, PhDAssistant professor in the Department of History at Emory University; author of Presumed Criminal: Black Youth and the Justice System in Postwar New York

If anyone ever thought inadequate health care in the Black community needed to be unveiled, the COVID-19 pandemic has done that. We find ourselves addressing police brutality and inadequate health care at the same time.

For years, Black communities have called for defunding or divesting [from] police and utilizing those resources elsewhere: in education, employment, health care. Many are seeing in a new light how underserved, medically, these communities have been, while continuing to see the dramatic response of police and military, whose resources seem to be abundant. Some organizers have taken to juxtaposing pictures of doctors in hospitals in trash bags [as personal protective equipment], and police officers, even in small towns and cities, in riot gear. Theyre having conversations around protective equipment what that means in the hospital versus what that means in these uprisings.

Two of the big moments have been the University of Minnesota president issuing a statement that theyre going to severe ties with the police department and the school board voting that public schools are also severing ties with the police department. This is the type of divestment its going to take to begin to make a change.

Jeffrey Druck, MDPresident of the Academy for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Medicine; professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine

My 10-year-old watched a portion of the video of George Floyd and said, Why would someone do that? I couldnt answer him.

I am so sad that I live in a world where something like this happens. Why would anyone do this?How can we talk about equity when blatant racism plays out on the national stage on a daily basis?How could anyone say to someone who is Black, You should trust the authorities? I dont.How can anyone? I know it is impossible to paint things with a broad brush. Most cops are wonderful people.

Then I think of all the wonderful things I have seen in the past few weeks:Students reaching out to both support and congratulate each other; faculty willing to go not only the extra mile, but the extra marathon, to help students; people in the grocery store waiting for each other, respecting personal space; and the feeling of, We are all in this together.

So, after crying for George Floyd, and the now innumerable number of people unfairly treated due to their skin color, and wondering how we move forward from yet another atrocity, I am positive of one thing: We can get there.It will be a long road, and that road starts with recognition of our biases and trying to work against them.There will be ups and downs, but I know the trajectory will be in the right direction.

Andre Churchwell, MD Chief diversity officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center; senior associate dean for diversity affairs and professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

There's a whole body of literature about the effects of chronic stress, which leads to cloudy thinking and cardiac issues and other medical problems. Racism is a driving catalyst in stress. Then theres a lethal brew of social determinants of health in low-income neighborhoods such as unfortunate housing circumstances, a lack of fruits and vegetables, and a lack of safe places to play. These all also influence your ability to have an education that could allow you to springboard yourself out of these circumstances.

Trainees and faculty from underrepresented backgrounds may feel like they aren't doing as much as they should because they're not out holding signs all the time. I try to make the case that taking care of everybody that comes through the hospitals door, poor or marginalized or otherwise, is social justice. If you do research to understand health disparities, that's another form of social justice. Teaching about and advocating for evidence-based policies and practices to take care of marginalized patients is doing social justice.

With the pandemic and the untoward violence against Mr. George Floyd and others, it feels like one thing on top of another. Now you have clusters of people protesting instead of practicing social distancing. I worry we're going to see spikes in COVID-19 and, unfortunately, more deaths in the marginalized populations that are often doing the marching.

Robert CannonPresident of Barnes-Jewish Hospital and group president of BJC HealthCare; board member of the AAMC Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems

As we watched the events unfold in Ferguson, Missouri, following the death of Michael Brown in 2014, leaders at Barnes-Jewish and our academic partner, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, recognized the need to take a new approach to understand the underlying racial and social issues affecting St. Louis.

We looked beyond the walls of our hospital to engage community partners. We hosted listening sessions to hear firsthand about generational mistrust for health care institutions. This led to new insights about social determinants of health and the resulting disparities in life expectancy that are based on nothing more than your zip code.

We also looked inward, knowing our staff live in the same neighborhoods upended by the civil unrest. Nearly all of our leaders have completed unconscious bias training, as well as half of our employees. We also organized community health tours for all of our leaders to see how institutionalized racism shaped neighborhoods, and why that continues to have an impact today.

Institutions can lead change, but only if it is a true priority. Academic medical centers benefit from resources that can help us focus on the underlying conditions of poverty, inequality, and health disparities, which include working with the schools of public health and social work. We have bedside programs to break the cycle of gun violence and provide trauma-informed care. And we leverage our legislative relationships to advocate for the underserved through policy, as we are doing to support Medicaid expansion in Missouri.

Change comes when you truly embrace your organizations values. For us, it means caring with compassion, listening with respect, and working together to create a physically and emotionally safe environment for our patients, families, and staff.

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Academic medical leaders and learners reflect on police brutality, racism, and the path forward - AAMC

Attorney General Keith Ellison has charged former officers Tou Thao, J Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane with aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.

ST PAUL, Minn. Charges against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin have been elevated, and three other former officers have now been charged for their involvement in the death of George Floyd.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman have filed criminal complaints against former officers Tou Thao, J Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane charging them with aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.

Chauvin had previously been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Chauvin, who was captured on video restraining Floyd by kneeling on his neck despite pleas from Mr. Floyd saying he couldnt breathe, is now charged with second-degree murder.

"I say George Floyd mattered, he was loved, his family was important, his life had value, and we will seek justice for him and for you and we will find it," Ellison said at a news conference Wednesday as he announced the new charges.

The revised criminal complaint against Chauvin filed Wednesday says that Chauvin and Officers Lane and Kueng restrained Floyd prone to the ground with a knee on his neck for nearly 9 minutes. "During this time, Mr. Floyd repeatedly stated he could not breathe and his physical condition continued to deteriorate such that force was no longer necessary to control him," the complaint reads. "The defendant had his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in total. Two minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Mr. Floyd was non-responsive. Police are trained that this type of restraint with a subject in a prone position is inherently dangerous. Officer Chauvins restraint of Mr. Floyd in this manner for a prolonged period was a substantial causal factor in Mr. Floyd losing consciousness, constituting substantial bodily harm, and Mr. Floyds death as well."

Criminal complaints issued against Thao, Lane and Kueng charge each of them with one count of aiding and abetting second-degree murder, and one of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Both charges are felony level. The complaint details how none of the three officers took action to assist Floyd, change his position or reduce the force Chauvin was using. In fact, the complaint alleges that none of the three officers moved from their positions as Floyd pleaded for help.

Minnesota BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said that one of those officers is in custody, and two are expected to be in custody in the afternoon.

Gov. Tim Walz asked Ellison to take over leading the investigationon Sunday, in partnership with Freeman's office. On Wednesday, Ellison said that Freeman's team did an "excellent job" gathering facts, and that Freeman has been a "true partner" every step of the way.

Ellison asked the public for patience as he said building the case will take months, and they will not be able to say much publicly while they do it.

"Every single link in the prosecutorial chain must be strong," he said. "It needs to be strong because trying this case will not be an easy thing. Winning a conviction will be hard."

Ellison pointed out that Freeman is the only Minnesota prosecutor who has won a murder conviction for a police officer - that of Mohamed Noor in the death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond.

"History does show that there are clear challenges here, and we are going to be working very hard," Ellison said.

While Floyd family attorney Benjamin Crump and many protesters have called for a first-degree murder charge, Ellison said Wednesday that a first-degree charge requires premeditation and deliberation. Second-degree intentional murder means the person had to intend for death to be the result. He explain the charge he filed against Chauvin - second-degree unintentional murder while committing a felony - by saying that his team will contend that "George Floyd was assaulted, and so that would be the underlying felony."

Crump posted on Twitter Wednesday, thanking Ellison for taking decisive action and arresting and charging the three additional officers.

"This is a significant step forward on the road to justice, and we are gratified that this important action was brought before George Floyds body was laid to rest," Crump said later in a released statement. "That is a source of peace for Georges family in this painful time. Attorney General Ellison has informed the family that his office will continue to investigate and will upgrade the charges to first-degree murder if the evidence supports it."

Demonstrators here in Minnesota, across the country and the globe have demanded charges against the three other officers who responded to the call that ended in Floyds death. While speaking with reporters Wednesday morning Crump called the three men complicit, saying the criminal complaint revealed that one of the officers told Chauvin that Floyd did not have a pulse, and asked if they should roll the man on his side. Crump says that awareness that Floyd was in serious trouble, combined with the failure to act, made the three culpable in the death.

Ellison said in the news conference Wednesday that public pressure, and the scheduled memorial service for George Floyd on Thursday, did not influence his charging decision.

"I was prepared to withstand whatever calls came," he said. "We made these decisions on the facts that we have gathered since this matter occurred and made the charges based on the law that we think applies."

To the protesters around the world watching the Floyd case, Ellison offered a message of encouragement to continue working for justice and systemic change in their own communities.

"Theres a lot more to do than just this case, and we ask people to do that," he said.

Ellison asked for the public's trust that his team and Freeman's team are pursuing justice, but he said that the "origin of the trust problem" is a historical under prosecution of public guardians.

"I feel a tremendous sense of weight," he said. "I feel this is a very serious moment. I can honestly tell you I take no joy in this but I do feel a tremendous sense of duty and responsibility."

All four officers were fired by Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Medaria Arradondo the day after the video of the fatal encounter surfaced on social media.

Chauvin is currently being held at the maximum security Oak Park Heights Correctional Facility, after being transferred there due to concerns about his safety, and potential exposure to COVID-19.

Gov. Walz reacted to the new charges with a statement Wednesday saying that they are "a meaningful step toward justice for George Floyd," but that the worldwide protests are about more than one incident.

George Floyds death is the symptom of a disease," Walz said in a statement. "We will not wake up one day and have the disease of systemic racism cured for us. This is on each of us to solve together, and we have hard work ahead.

In a press conference Wednesday evening, Walz addressed the importance of the Floyd case as a society.

"I think this is probably our last shot as a state and as a nation to fix this systemic issue," he said. "This rage that you saw, and the violence excluded from it those who chose to go down that path the message is now, here in Minnesota for the last five days, come back to the issue at hand, which is the systemic issues and the systemic racism and the lack of accountability, up and down our society, that led to a daytime murder of a black man on a street in Minneapolis."

He added that as protests arose nationally, it made it clear that it's not an isolated incident.

"It's very clear that there is a lot more to this, and communities have been telling us that," he said.

When asked about his call to fix systemic issues, Walz said that he's confident that the proposals that will be introduced during next week's special session will be the groundwork for making the necessary change.

"I think it's going to be very telling next week when proposals that are coming out of the community, that are best practices that are shown in places like Camden, New Jersey, have made a difference in how police violence ... our proposals are going to mirror what is coming out of the community."

New Jersey recently announced new law enforcement reform to help increase the trust between the police and the communities they serve.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also issued a statement, saying:, That George Floyds plea that his struggle to survive went unrecognized and unaided by not just one but four officers will live forever as the most chilling moments in our citys history. Failing to act amounted to a failure to recognize Georges humanity. As Chief Arradondo has stated, silence is complicity, and complicity cannot be tolerated.

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Chauvin charged with 2nd-degree murder, 3 officers also charged - KARE11.com

The events of the past week infuriating, heartbreaking, frustrating, exhausting demand that we take action so our nation can dismantle the structures of racism that have threatened Black lives and wellbeing since the nation was first established.

I know this isnt news to many of our diverse and dedicated Generocity community members who fight for racial and economic justice on a daily basis. Still, the urgency of the now (I think I stole that line from Bill Golderer) calls for the nonprofit sector to respond.

What forms will that response take?

We asked folks in Philadelphias nonprofit sector to weigh in.

The level of anger were seeing in these protests and unrest is not just about one case of police violence, its about a long history of white supremacy inflicted on the Black community.

Philanthropy has been complicit in this: only 10 percent of philanthropic dollars went to people-of-color led organizations in 2018. We need to change that. Philanthropy needs to prioritize its giving to organizations not just serving black and brown people but run by black and brown people.

Its time for the philanthropic community to seriously embrace demands for radical change and for national reparations.

Lets not look at this as an isolated moment but as a milestone on a continuum of injustice and struggle. Many parts of our sector seek to support and provide services to the people most affected by the vicious acts of institutional racism weve collectively witnessed over the last few weeks.

I say, turn inward. Examine how our sacred nonprofit organizations are agents of racism and anti-blackness, whether in our hiring and promotion, the composition of our decision making bodies, or in the failure to lift up the voices of the people we serve. Before you hit the streets, hit up your HR teams, hold a mirror to your board, check your payroll and ask your employees of color experience how they experience your organization.

We have to change the definitions of covert and overt acts of racism. Stop thinking that covert racism is the exclusive purview of racist cops, neo-Nazis and members of the KKK. It shows up very much in how nonprofits are staffed and managed and the stories they tell about the most vulnerable in our society. Put down the social media long enough to engage in some self-reflection and long overdue change.

Our organizations need to create space for honest and intentional dialogue and collaboration in the development and execution of community-led strategies to address these inequities face on, sin andarse con paos tibios.

We must work together to move towards the real change that is long overdue to support the healing and self actualization of our people.

Saying the system is broken suggests that it once worked well for all. It has not. Indeed, too many parts of the system were designed to exclude and do damage to some communities. That is why so many nonprofits exist to address issues of inequality and injustice. By definition, mission-driven organizations as a combined force are helping to address the whole of peoples lives; we tackle the historic challenges that black communities and others face that lead to this sense of injustice, and that takes a toll on health, well-being, and economic advancement.

During these extraordinary times, when issues of police misconduct and violence towards African Americans is at the forefront, we have to carefully balance addressing the moment while continuing to pursue our core mission to ensure that the broader pursuits of justice, equity, and opportunity do not suffer.

Benefits Data Trust (BDT) helps advance equity by connecting people to critical public benefits that help pay for food, healthcare, and utilities, providing people a path out of poverty and towards financial stability. These are the times the BDT spirit and community were built for, meant to withstand, and see us all through.

Movement Alliance Project joins the sorrow and the rage of this nation at not just the police officer murder of George Floyd, but the generational oppression and divestment of Black and Brown people in this city and country.

Our job right now is to follow that rage and to amplify the demands of our people: todefund the polices $14M budget increasein a time of enormous economic devastation, and to aim towards a world that does not need police.

We are far from that now, and the uprisings in our streets reflect the ugly dichotomy of the lie of the American dream and the racist reality of life in Philadelphia. Our job is to not return to business as usual, and to pressure our officials to not throw our city into a generation of even deeper poverty by focusing on property destruction more than the root causes of this uprising: racist divestment of Black and Brown people in the poorest big city in America.

As organizational heads, we need to show true leadership and solidarity with Black lives by putting in the work to intentionally root out the systems of violence that have harmed Black and Afro-Latinx communities without consequence. This might look drastically different than our normal day to day work, but silence and inaction are complicity with a system that has terrorized and murdered Black people for centuries.

Our job is to push back against narratives that frame civil protesters as looters, reject any kind of line that values property over Black Lives. Our job also means taking a step back and following the leadership of Black-led organizations and organizers on the ground and using our privilege and resources to amplify their work. But thats not all you need to demand that Philly #DefundThePolice because the safest communities dont have more cops, they have more resources for the people.

Defunding the militarization, surveillance, and policing of Black and brown communities is one of the first meaningful steps towards a more just future.

Philadelphia has slashed the funding for nearly every meaningful program in this city: housing, public education, the Citys Office of Arts and Culture and PAIFUP the only universal representation program for detained immigrants are some of the few programs and initiatives that were either slashed or completely removed from this years budget. The Philadelphia Police Department however is slated to receive at minimum, a $14 million dollar increase this year. For every 34 cents this city spends on community centered initiatives, it spends a dollar expanding and militarizing our local police forces.

City Council is expected to vote on the budget this Friday, each and every one of us need to contact our elected officials and tell them that we will not stand for this budget increase. Call, email, tweet, and sign up to give testimony on June 9 to City Council so you can tell them directly why we dont need more cops in this city, and why they should take this money and use it to invest in the programs that actually keep people safe.

Here in 2020, we have witnessed another explosion that Malcolm X warned about in 1964 in his The Ballot or the Bullet speech. Protests, looting, and riots have overtaken our city and the nation by citizens who are fed up with police brutality and the most recent killing of George Floyd; and over the seemingly ruthless killings of black and brown people by the hands of the police over too many years. They are angry. They are tired of the oppression and exploitation. They are fed up. And quite frankly, I am angry and tired too. For too long, we have been sold empty political promises. Now citizens have taken to the streets to serve up Malcolms prophetic bullet.

The year 2020 should not look and feel like the year 1964. It is not supposed to. We were told that if we had more representation in elected office and positions of power that things would change. But history has shown us that just because we slap a Black face onto a system of oppression, it doesnt make the system any less oppressive or racist. In Philadelphia, we have gotten Black leadership into office and have nothing to show for it. Weve had three Black mayors, four Black police commissioners, a Black DA, countless Black judges and state legislators, and a City Council that is predominantly Black. And still, the year 2020 feels like 1964.

We still live in a system where George Floyd can be murdered with a police officers knee on his neck, captured in broad daylight on video, and we still have to question whether that officer will be brought to justice. Weve watched Ahmaud Arbery be murdered while jogging. Breonna Taylor was shot eight times by the police while asleep in her own bed. Philando Castile was shot and killed by the police at a traffic stop. Seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was hunted down and killed just holding a bag of Skittles and an iced tea. Twelve year old Tamir Rice was gunned down by the police at a playground in Cleveland. And there are so many others that time and space wont allow me to name here. So yes, the anger is justified. I would be angry if people werent angry.

While many protesters marched peacefully, there were many more who chose to channel that anger into destruction. They looted and burned businesses in Center City and along neighborhood corridors. They set police cars and police stations ablaze. The past couple of days there seems to be a nonstop rampage through the city of Philadelphia, as well as many other cities across the nation. And I ask just two questions: 1) does any of this destruction get us closer to a solution; and 2) where do we go from here?

Rioting and looting is not a new response to anger over police brutality. We have been there and done that. My experience is that it doesnt end well for us. My generation suffered the consequences of the North Philly race riots of 1964. I was born and raised in the heart of North Central Philly where the riots took place, as well as Mantua, and I witnessed firsthand how my neighborhood never recovered from the misplaced destruction from more than 50 years ago. Burned down businesses and buildings still remain in North Philly from the destruction caused more than 50 years ago. So there I was, a little Black boy, growing up with the burden of knowing that any dealings with the police could be a death sentence for me but also living with the added burden of a distressed dilapidated neighborhood that was destroyed by my own people. Burning down the neighborhood did not solve the problem. And that is why I ask my two questions.

I dont ask these questions to chastise the protesters angry response to oppression. They have an absolute right to be angry. I ask these questions because I dont want to hand my own two Black sons a worse situation that was given to me; trying to clean up and put back together what we destroyed 50 years from now. Weve been here before. This is not new. If we are going to tear down the walls of oppression, we better know what the endgame is. And we better have a plan.

I struggle to find the words to capture the swirl of feelings. Anger, despair, disbelief, rage. I see people more appalled at stores being looted than they are with the continued murder of Black and brown bodies. I notice people and organizations posting #blacklivesmatter when I know they are doing little to combat white dominance in their everyday lives.

But I also see hope, community, resiliency, and determination. I see people uniting and saying that we are not going to take it anymore. I talk with folks who want to put in work and build a better world. And that is where I hope we can put our energies in the weeks to come.

We in the nonprofit arena have to interrogate our organizational practices that uphold white supremacy and invest time and resources into combating anti-blackness. Do our boards and leadership reflect our city? Are we paying a thriving wage? Are we fighting against the cult of white professionalism? Are we allowing people to work remotely and have schedules that enable them to take care of their families? Are we being transparent and committed to holding white staff members accountable?

We all have a role to play. This is about more than police brutality. We have to examine, fix, and heal from the myriad ways we have all been complicit in perpetuating anti-blackness and racialized violence. Its been time.

There is no quick fix for systemic racism and I, as a white leader in philanthropy, dont profess to have the answers, but there are three things we can do immediately: open our hearts, ears, and bank accounts all of them in combination.

Lets lead with our hearts, especially now that they are broken. If we are not all hurting from the blatant, intentional systemic brutality against Indigenous, Black and brown people in this country, then I dont think we should be in this work. For those of us in philanthropy that are not understanding where this uprising is coming from, we need to educate ourselves on this countrys legacy of entrenched racism. Here are some resources to get started: The 1619 Project; this anti-racism resource for white people by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein, and this organizing resource from Philly We Rise, listing local movement-building organizations that can be funded directly.

We can and need to listen to Indigenous, Black and brown people in our communities and at all levels in our organizations. Truly listen. I witnessed a beautiful example of this on a livestream last night when Councilperson Jamie Gauthier stepped between a tense police standoff with a large group of young people in her district at Chestnut and 52nd Street. The young people were shouting their rage and nothing the Councilperson said made them feel heard until she asked, What do you want? She listened to their demands for police accountability, for change, for justice. Only when we listen to the people most affected by injustice do we have a chance of getting any of this right.

Then we can act quickly, building trust by responding to what we hear. This means funding organizations working for real change that are led by people most affected by the harms. Examples include the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund and PA Domestic Workers. We would be happy to share a fuller list. And lets make it easy. An organization thats doing important work shouldnt need a development director in order to navigate our hoops.

But lets be honest. Of all of the funds that have sprouted up in response to COVID-19, the ones that are getting the least support from philanthropy are those advancing systemic change. We have to ask ourselves why is that? Why are we protecting the status quo instead of supporting movements that build power in communities that have been looted by white supremacy for centuries? We have options at the ready, including the Bread & Roses Solidarity Fund for COVID-19 which distributes dollars to grassroots organizing groups and PA is Ready that funds immigrant-led community organizing and legal services. We can increase our grantmaking beyond the 5% IRS minimum, provide general operating dollars and fund multi-year. We can align our financial investments with our mission, proactively investing our endowments in businesses owned by people of color, both citizen and immigrant. In Philadelphia, a majority African American city, lets invest in Black-owned businesses.

Fels Fund is doing all of these things and we are not perfect at it, but we are committed to doing better.

During the recent unrest in Philadelphia, most neighborhood corridors were decimated. In one area, over 600 jobs were lost.

Nonprofits must be able to harness the resources to provide information to neighbors on basic services and identify youth in the community that can be developed as leaders. Food and medicines are needed as these sites have been destroyed.

Many of us who have provided these services are strapped for resources, particularly operating funds. The groups that are doing food programs will be more strained as access to food is more difficult.

The funding community must step up and provide more than the allowable percentage of giving to support job training, job creation and work with government on a massive Marshall Plan for domestic purposes.

Finally the COVID-19 pandemic that have decimated Black and brown communities require investment in culturally competent medical training, neighborhood medical centers, forgiveness of loans for medical practitioners working in urban and rural communities.

Most importantly, a message of hope must be instilled in everything we do.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the pandemic of systemic racism that police institutions are part of, must push us to build towards the change we want to see. We must set real goals and actions to further the idea of Black and brown solidarity.

The pandemic has awakened each of us differently the old normal was never good for brown and Black people and we want a new normal. We demand a new normal.

The pandemic has also showed the multiple oppressions that we suffer. After seeing George Floyds murder, and the different range of responses of our brown communities, its clear to me that we have a lot work to do to learn about our own internalized racism, colorism and responses to Black peoples pain.

Now is the time for us to take serious and intentional steps to learn and find the connecting dots between the injustices we face as immigrants with brown bodies and the injustices Black people have always faced in the U.S., in order to learn, to teach each other our struggles, to find bridges so we come together to push the government for concrete change.

The Keystone Development Partnership (KDP) is an affiliate of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO and was founded by union members. We understand that protests are an expression of the oppressed springing from a culmination of injustices. We are horrified by continued injustices against minorities across the globe.

We see a living wage for all and more opportunity for minority workers as essential to developing a more just, equitable, dynamic, and successful workforce. We have been, and continue to be, committed to increasing diversity in the workforce throughout Pennsylvania and ensuring that once people get into those careers, they experience upward mobility, including pay increases, worker protections, and worker training. We also connect businesses to government services to supplement the costs of these services that help workers as well as their employers.

Personally, from my years working in Victims Services, I saw firsthand that opportunity decreases violence. From educational programs for youth to career opportunities for all.

The response to the current expressions of anger is to answer the call for systemic change. KDP will continue working to answer this call, as we have since our inception as a non-profit that focuses on equity in the workforce for all working people.

During this time of strife in our country, our hearts are burdened for our people.

Our prayers as clergy are asking God to touch the hearts of our young Philadelphians, who are working out their anger and angst in ways that are not constructive for the changes we need in society. Many different groups, including outsiders and our own people, are causing destruction in our neighborhoods through targeted vandalism and looting the violence must stop.

Significant changes are needed within our city, state and federal governments, which have continually perpetuated our communities demise. We are hopeful that every young person who desires to see change would begin to organize to create that change through the democratic process. Only then will we see lasting transformation of the structures that have led to inequity and injustice, instead of deeper suffering.

Lets join together to create the environment we deserve. That can only happen when we define the changes we need, and fight for them together in a constructive way. We can transform our society if we unite, organize and fight together for the change. Please join us, or organize with others, and we will join you to push for a better way of life for our people.

We pray we can emerge from this violence and destruction with the will to come together and develop real and effective plans to fix the broken areas of our society.

Its time for us to take a moment. To recognize that African American and Hispanic people are beginning to rebel against the forces of power that have been assaulting our community while we are expected to remain passive. Its time to take a moment to be candid and clear about what we all know about what happens in our country.

We know how to recognize when the death of a Black or brown man at the hands of a police officer is murder.

We know the Dixie flag is a flag of anti-American, pro-slavery traitors.

We know that people who excuse murderers and traitors are enablers.

We know our labor is exploited, even though we are called essential during times of crisis; we have always been paid as if we are modern-day serfs.

We know why our schools arent funded so our children cant compete with those that can afford a better education.

We know why Black and brown people die of coronavirus at higher rates than white people in cities across America because of who has better nutrition, better healthcare, and better employment achieved via family and social networks, that allows them to work from home.

We want the full benefits of the social compact promised to us in the constitution and bill of rights, that the power elite and political class of this country have constantly failed to provide. We the systemically oppressed and disadvantaged are not so nave and unaware as the wealthy and powerful believe.

Our social compact is supposed to guarantee that when we work, participate, and contribute to our civil society, our sons and daughters will be protected. Our political leadership you have failed us. You allow racists to run amok with guns and Dixie flags in public rallies while you exonerate murderers. You deny us healthcare, so when a deadly disease arrives, we die in greater numbers. At the very same time we are suffering and dying more than anyone else in America, you call us essential, you rely on us to keep food on your table, and fail to protect us from further harm.

Murderers must be arrested and put in jail.

Traitors and racists must be called traitors and racists.

Enablers must be removed from leadership.

Low-income school districts must be funded on par with top-funded districts across their states.

High quality universal healthcare must be provided to every American.

Jobs must pay livable wages.

Ultrawealthy individuals like Jeff Bezos and companies like Amazon must pay their fair share in taxes.

We want to own the companies that we bail out with our tax dollars.

We want protection from technology companies that intrude in our lives and in our privacy, profiting on our data and manipulating our society under the guise that they are helping us.

In the coming months, we will find ways to respond. There are deep divides in our nation, and we must expose the ugly truths that prevent us from creating a peaceful and prosperous society for all. Today we will begin, by using the language that speaks the truth about our conditions. We will call people who they are: Murderers. Racists. Thieves. Enablers.

We have allowed the truth to be ignored for long enough. Those of you who create these conditions for your own gain must be exposed. We will organize until the change that is necessary is achieved.

We are interested in hearing from more nonprofit professionals and leaders, especially Black leaders, about what your next steps are now, and what they will be six months from now. Send me an email at philly@generocity.org with your comment (no more than two paragraphs, please) and a headshot, and we may incorporate them into this story.

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As protests and unrest grip the nation, how should Philly nonprofits respond? - Generocity